Sony has released the official trailer and poster for its upcoming Spider-Man spin-off film Kraven the Hunter.
The Kraven the Hunter trailer shows Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s eponymous Marvel villain/antihero in action. The trailer delves quite a bit into Kraven’s backstory, including the death of his mother, his cold father who trained him to be a killer, and the lion mauling that changed his life forever. It also highlights Kraven’s mission of snuffing out the evil his father put into the world (and doing so in gory fashion). The trailer concludes with a cameo by none other than fellow Spider-Man villain Aleksei Sytsevich, better known as the Rhino.
Moreover, Sony has revealed the official poster for Kraven the Hunter, which shows Taylor-Johnson’s version of the character channeling his comic book counterpart by sitting atop his throne and resting his chin on his fist. Both the trailer and the poster solidify the film’s planned October 2023 release date.
Who is in Sony’s Kraven the Hunter movie?
In addition to Taylor-Johnson as Kraven himself, Sony’s Kraven the Hunter stars Ariana DeBose as Calypso, Russell Crowe as Kraven’s father, and Fred Hechinger as Kraven’s half-brother Dmitri Smerdyakov (better known as the Chameleon). Meanwhile, Alessandro Nivola has been cast as the Rhino, making him the second actor to play the character in live-action. Paul Giamatti portrayed Aleksei Sytsevich in Sony’s 2014 film The Amazing Spider-Man 2. However, whereas Giamatti’s version of the Rhino had a giant mechanical suit, Nivola’s Rhino hews closer to the comic book version by rocking artificial skin.
Rounding out Kraven the Hunter’s cast is Christopher Abbott, who is playing the film’s main villain. More specifically, Abbott is reportedly portraying the Foreigner, a Spider-Man foe originally introduced in the 1980s. The Foreigner was once pitched as being the true identity of the Hobgoblin in the comics, though this idea never came to fruition.
Sony’s Kraven the Hunter is directed by J.C. Chandor from a screenplay by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Richard Wenk. The film is scheduled to open in theaters on Oct. 6.
